pledges

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Whilst the conference itself was about networking and bringing together many of the organisations and groups in Dorset, what we intend to do as a result of the pledges could have a far-reaching impact that will have long term lasting value. 

So we would like all organisations, businesses and individuals to make a pledge of what changes they intend to commit to over the coming year. 

Pledges could be more ambitious and far reaching for businesses and organisations who may have a greater capacity to implement change. For individuals, pledges would best be tailored to fit your lives, your available time, your finances and so on, being realistic with what changes you can make and commit to.  

PLEDGES SUBMITTED TO DATE

Continue to do all I can and never give up. - G Baldwin

Grow more food at home and encourage a local food exchange. Encourage more people to give more of their gardens to wildlife. - S Birch

Use train not plane where possible. Walk and use the car less or use the bus. Do more survey sessions for GBDH. Buy more local food and check origins of food. Extend growing season in my veg garden with successional planting. Improve the soil.  - K Blowfield 

 At home, continue to reinforce and learn new ways to reduce my environmental footprint. Where I live, continue work with Planet Shaftesbury and other community groups to build local response to the eco crisis and community resilience. Further afield, use my voice and money to help adaptation in a reputable way. - Rachel Bodle 

Every rural parish that has had a Great Big Dorset Hedge (GBDH) survey undertaken anywhere in their parish will be asked what they are able to do to help landowners improve the conditions of the hedgerows across their parish. It is my call to action at the local level enabled by the sustained constructive efforts of out many GBDH volunteers. - John Calder

Risk my reputation and relationships to have conversations and speak the truth, despite the discomfort. Change isn't comfortable but I pledge to lean into it. - Champions for Earth

Keep asking for environmental literacy programme for de-carbonising at speed and scale for our well-being and protection.   - Susan Chapman

The Green Party Group of Councillors on DC pledge to do all it can to make DC provide the local political leadership that our CEE demands. - Cllr. Kelvin Clayton (DC and Bridport TC)

Make my home more sustainable, including composting and growing. Do more cycling and walking and reduce my energy usage. All the items listed in the Green Living Guide. I may even start a local group. - Tracee Cossey

Maintain my smallholding in a way that protects and promotes biodiversity. Keep my CF low. Plant trees every year. Grow as much food and medicine as possible. Boycott imported food. Offer locally produced medicine and herbal healthcare to the public. Raise awareness by working with community groups. Speak out when I see practices harmful to biodiversity. Offer information on positive strategy for low impact living. Run my business in an environmentally sensitive way.  - Kim Cresswell (Goldberry Herbs)

Keep biodiversity and CE on the agenda of the PC. Raise awareness of and share information in the local community. Hold our MP to account. Protect biodiversity in Queen Thorne parish. Help other communities set up groups if they request help. - Kim Cresswell (Nature Watch group)

Set up a Green Living Project in Upwey. - Diane Crumbleholme

Support and put into action the Dorchester Declaration. Share the declaration with my PC. Share and enact these principles with my local group, Leigh Climate Group. Communicate with the elected representatives. - C H D

Reject any political leadership that promotes new fossil fuel extraction. Stop attending talk-show events that do not aim to resolve actions. Lobby leadership to create regulatory funding and infrastructure changes to support real actions. - Jonathan Dixon

Carry on with my care for wildlife, whether badgers, birds or insects. I pledge to carry on being careful with water, food etc. and I will go on 'making do and mending'. I pledge to write an article about Dorset COP. - Lesley Docksey

In our responses to planning applications and policy planning formulation, we will promote progressive win/win outcomes that seek to integrate the objective of heritage conservation with effective climate change mitigation and adaptation. - Joe Doak (Dorchester Civic Society). 

Advocate, educate, make changes, support others to make changes and start a new conversation. - Eco Subo

Implement sustainable / regenerative farming policies. Divest from FF. Lobby DC for a more effective declaration - to include policy change and stop throwing responsibility back onto individuals. - Ali Edgley 

Not to further delay in setting up my consultancy Energy Ideas Ltd. offering independent domestic energy advisory services. - Mark Farmer (Energy Ideas Ltd.)

Drive positive impact and change with a balance for environment, economy and society. Accelerate our company pace to zero commitment. Support our team to take positive change beyond work at home. Through our work promote positive change and hold to account actions that are detrimental to this change. - E Fripp (EFECA)

Continue to talk about / take action where I can locally, nationally and globally through work and eco groups Eco Sobo and Subo Waste Busters and how I live. - MG (Subo Waste Busters)

I pledge to speak more openly about positive individual changes people in my network can make to contribute to a more sustainable and just society. I will actively engage with my local MP and Councillors regarding climate and sustainability issues and continue to pursue a career in environmental policy and advocacy. I will continue to reduce my own consumption and be honest with myself about my progress and minimize or avoid cognitive dissonance. - Paul Galpin

Avoid temptation the next time I see a clothing garment which I would like but not need. Challenge supermarkets selling vegetables wrapped in plastic. - R M Gatside

Collect cold shower water in a bucket to flush toilet with. We (TOPS Day Nurseries) pledge to become net positive in 2023. - Cheryl Hadland (TOPS Day Nurseries / Aspire Training)

Work as hard as possible as leader for Weymouth TC to implement our newly-agreed 5-year CEE plan which focuses on encouraging all residents and businesses to get involved in a range of supportive projects to lesson cc and support local ecology. - DB Harris (Weymouth TC)

Avoid travelling by plane in the future. - Kathy Hollidge

Use my position of privilege to campaign for climate justice and do all I can to work towards a cleaner, greener, slower future. I will speak kindly to educate people around CC and encourage them to care about their home. I will criticise our leaders if they act against a brighter future and work for their commitment. Mostly, I will believe we can make a change. - Connie Hollings 

Try to do laundry at night. Buy and fit a diverter to use grey water from washing machine to water the garden. Increase my veg growing.  - Bridget Josh 

My pledge is to prioritise the needs of future generations over my own current needs and wants and to continue to develop and share best practice in ESD. This is a personal pledge, but I am sure that Transition Towns Weymouth and Portland will be able to input communally. - Mairi Kershaw 

Support Green Martinstown to become Green Winterbournes, bringing together Winterbourne Abbas, Steepleton and Martinstown. To help create a postcard describing the Green Living Project. To continue to talk about the refugee and climate crises. - Jo Lacy Smith

Reduce transport emissions by using public transport or walking. Continue to promote through my activities as a parish Councillor reduction in local CF. Focus my energies in direct engagement with my family to help them understand and take action. - Julie Leah

Help and support local community transition to a sustainable future joining the dots between organisations and projects, championing, profiling, cheer-leading and knowledge sharing. By listening, learning and sharing, I hope that as an individual, as an agency and as a community group I can help enact positive change. - Lizzie McManus (Warrior Agency Eco Sobo)

Continue making myself unpopular and talk about our insane numbers; please find the courage to go where angels fear to tread. Chris Packham and David Attenborough support Population Matters; so should you. - E Phillips 

Reduce car use and car share. Reduce shower usage. Reduce washing machine usage and not use drier. Reduce / reuse packaging. Buy UK grown food. Heating and lighting usage reduced. - Maya Pieris 

Grow more vegetables in our garden. - Anne Ringrose

Having taken the jump in 2022, to continue the changes I made. Having stopped flying in 2018, to continue Flight Free and promote travel by train. Having installed a domestic heat pump, solar panel, LED lighting and battery storage technology, to fine tune energy use and to continue to participate in energy supplier Winter Saving sessions. Having been vegetarian since 1977, to minimise dairy product consumption. To continue to try to buy in-season food and avoid produce transported by air, to support local growers and to continue to minimise food waste and compost all appropriate organic matter. Having invested in a Ripple project (Scottish wind farm), to explore community energy generation. Having leafleted for two Green Councillors (successfully elected) to continue supporting the Green Party. Having switched investments to Environmental, Social and Governance funds, to remain vigilant about the ethics of financial products. To periodically update my Will to allocate legacies to effective environmental organisations. - Sam Rowlands

I have recently started Hazelbury Abuzz which aims to encourage pollinator friendly planting in village gardens / communal spaces. - Val Rubie

Start composting in our garden. Start a veggie patch. Not take any flights in the next 12 months. Investigate green energy for our home. - Sarah Ruston. 

Use my position as an elected representative on BCP council to lobby, advocate and champion action on climate and ecological/nature emergency which is the single greatest threat facing human beings today. Specifically this year I intend to use every opportunity available to me to influence the development of the BCP Local Plan, to ensure that mitigating and adapting to climate change are principles that are at the heart of our planning system. -  Cllr Kate Salmon (Moordown Ward BCP)

Try and use the car less, buy second-hand clothes and be careful with how much food I buy. - Brenda Stephenson

Ensure Shaftesbury TC adopts and puts into practice the Sustainable Action Plan  2023 - 2031. Ensure DC acts to fulfill its climate and ecological emergency policy with maximum speed and top priority. - Richard Thomas

Write a blueprint of how to set up a local community group. Carry on doing what I am doing in DCAN, Green Martinstown and Shambhala.  - Colin Tracey 

Promote efficient, sustainable, low-cost, connecting, well-publicised, and regular public transport and encourage modal shift from car to bus, train and bike. - WATAG

Try to develop a relationship with Chris Loder or our future MP to press home practices endorsed by Dorset CAN. - Giles Watts

Stay vegan. No longer fly. Walk or cycle as much as possible. Grow my own veg. Harvest rainwater. Use electric from own solar panels. No longer use gas. Continue to shine a light on the banks as they fund climate breakdown by lending to ff companies. - Annie Webster

Try to be more vocal about CC and its many ramifications. - M J Whiting 

Develop my positive side by understanding system change. Improve the electricity consumption in my home. - Sam Wilberforce 

Remain flight free. Work as a volunteer director of DCE. Continue to use my bike whenever I can. No meat and be 90% vegan. - R Yelmarsley 

We have listed some further examples below. They cover many different aspects nature recovery and society. 

Once we have gathered all the pledges we will analyse the results, group them into types and publish the findings to draw attention to the effort that organisations and individuals are prepared to commit to to make a difference.

If possible please think about what you might pledge before the conference as there will be pledge cards at the conference to fill in. 

Thank you.

1. I will commit at least one third of my farmland to maximising biodiversity, plant more trees, preserving heritage apple varieties, providing a huge array of flowering plants for pollinators and allowing my hedges to grow high and wide.

2. To hold a beach clean at least once a year but we will also pledge to pick up at least 3 bits of plastic each time we visit a beach.

3. To continue to work with stakeholders to further understand, find ways to co-exist with and, wherever possible, regenerate the valuable seabed habitats we are lucky to have within our harbour.

4. Taking meaningful action on our estate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change to ensure a net gain in carbon sequestration.

5. Designing, implementing and managing our work in consultation with local communities, taking into account past, present and future landscape character..

6. Over the next two months, I'm going to repair 1 or 2 item(s) of clothing and 1 or 2 other household item(s), which I would otherwise have replaced.

7. I'm going to try using my washing machine at night. I tend to do 5 daytime loads a week, and over the next two months, I'll do all of them at night.

8. I pledge to try and grow my own veg, growing them mostly in my garden. 

9. I will set up a local group to further explore biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change. We are more powerful, more effective and more inspired when working together. We know our locality better than anyone else and can make a real difference.

10. On an average day, I send and receive emails regularly, for both work & personal use (about average volume), and stream videos or games for 1 - 3 hours. Over the next two months, I pledge to be more thoughtful and efficient with my digital habits.

11.At the moment I try to pick the lower-plastic options where possible. I pledge to cut out about half my plastic packaging over the next two months. 

12. At the moment I have energy efficient halogen bulbs. Within the next two months, I pledge to switch 3 bulbs to low energy ones. How many hours are your lights on each day? 5 (average is about 3).

13. I will write to my local MP and challenge him when he votes against environmental safeguarding policies or doesn’t act with enough urgency on climate change issues

14. I pledge to collect the cold water in a bucket as l wait for the water to warm up before a shower and use that for flushing the loo and make the showers shorter

15. I pledge to continue to collaborate with our community to make our village more sustainable..